Of the 230 candidates facing serious criminal charges, 14 have declared they have been convicted in the past.
Of
the candidates contesting the third phase of Lok
Sabha elections, 340 (21%) have declared they are facing criminal
cases of which 230 (14%) face serious criminal charges, as per an
analysis of candidates’ affidavits by the Association for
Democratic Reforms (ADR). The figures come from the affidavits of
1,594 of the 1,612 candidates contesting in phase three as the
affidavits of 18 candidates were illegible or incomplete.
As
many as 392 (25%) of 1,594 candidates whose affidavits were studied
have declared assets worth Rs 1 crore or more. Among the major
parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Samajwadi
Party have the highest proportion (90% from SP, 84% from BJP and 82%
from Congress) of ‘crorepati’ candidates.
Nearly
43% of all candidates have declared they have a graduate degree or
above, while 3.6% have declared they are just literate and 1.4% are
illiterate.
More
than a third of candidates are aged between 25 and 40 years, while
nearly half are between 41 and 60 years.
The
third phase of polling began on April 23, 2019. Affidavits of 18
candidates were not analysed as they were not properly scanned or
were incomplete.
Criminal
charges
Of
the 230 candidates facing serious criminal charges, 14 have declared
they have been convicted in the past. Persons convicted are debarred
from contesting elections for six years from the date of conviction,
but only if they have been sentenced to imprisonment of two years or
more.
Among
Congress’s
candidates, 27% (24 of 90) face serious criminal charges. As many
as 27% (26 of 97) of BJP candidates face serious criminal charges,
10% (9 of 92) of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), 27% (6 of 22) of the Shiv
Sena, 32% (6 of 19) of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), 50% (5
of 10) of Nationalist Congress Party, 40% (4 of 10) of Samajwadi
Party and 44% (4 of 9) candidates from All India Trinamool Congress
face serious criminal charges.
13
candidates have declared they are facing cases related to murder, 30
have declared cases related to attempt to murder, 14 related to
kidnapping, 29 related to crime against women and 26 related to hate
speech, the ADR analysis shows.
Among
the major parties, 44% (40 of 90) Congress candidates have declared
criminal cases against themselves. As many as 39% (38 of 97)
candidates from BJP and 17% (16 of 92) candidates from BSP have
declared criminal cases against themselves.
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